FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
CLUB-MOSS, VEGETABLE SULPHUR, WOLF'S CLAW, STAG'S HOM MOSS (Lycopodium clavatum).
Kavasch, Barrie. 1979. Native Harvests. Recipes and Botanicals of the American Indian. Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York.
The Indians inhaled the yellowish spores to stop nose-bleed and considered the plant a diuretic.
Kavasch, Barrie. 1979. Native Harvests. Recipes and Botanicals of the American Indian. Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York.
This is one of the oldest plant groups, dating back perhaps three hundred million years. These dwarf spore-producing evergreens perennially spread by running rootstocks in dense woodland carpets. Many club-mosses have erect spore-bearing structures, which produce water-resistant spores. These have been used as dusting powder to prevent skin chafing, to treat eczema, and especially to dust on open wounds. High flammable, the spores have also been used in small fireworks and in photographic flashes.
Considered inedible, the club-mosses have significant medicinal and technological benefits. They seem to mirror the appearance of the pines, hemlocks, and cedars they so often grow beneath. Of the more than one hundred speices, the most common North American ones are profiled here.
